The present invention relates to lighting and indicator devices for motor vehicles.
Numerous cases arise in which the space available in a motor vehicle design is not sufficient for installing an indicator function. This is the case, for example, when several functions have to be grouped together into a single assembly of reduced volume, for example a housing including a dipped-beam headlamp, a main-beam headlamp, a direction indicator and a parking light, and when it is desired to install a supplementary or complementary function.
In the same way, cases may arise where the space available for installing a lighting or indicator function is limited, and where this function has to be installed in order to satisfy regulations. This is the case, for example, of a third stop light which, depending on the characteristics of a given vehicle, can only be installed within the passenger compartment of the vehicle, close to the rear window, this third stop light reducing visibility through this rear window.
Furthermore, considerations of styling are of growing importance, and are becoming a major preoccupation in terms of the design of motor-vehicle equipment in general, and of headlamps or indicator lights in particular, the designers always seeking new possibilities for aesthetic integration of these devices into the vehicle.
It is thus, for example, that masks, used in the first place to conceal either discontinuities between different components, for example between the reflector and the protective glazing of a headlamp, or parts having no optical function, such as the housing itself, are now used as decorative elements, by giving them particular appearances, for example a tint or a reflective coating, or particular configurations, for example reliefs or patterns, in order to obtain a novel aesthetic effect.
In contrast, the elements of the lighting or indicator device which participate in producing the light beam, that is to say the optical components, do not allow such freedom of styling. This is because the regulations in force stipulate that the light beams emitted by such devices must comply with constraints relating both to their geometric extent and to their photometric qualities, in terms of both luminous intensity and dominant color. All that is then possible is to give these optical components a very light tinting or coloring, so that the effect on the light beam emitted by the devices remains unnoticeable, and so that these tints or colorations are practically imperceptible.
The present invention lies within this context, and its object is to propose a component for a lighting or indicator device the overall size of which is negligible or nil, so as to allow it to be easily installed in the spaces for these lighting or indicator devices where the volume is restricted and where it is nevertheless desired to make available a lighting, indicator or styling function, such a component having moreover to be simple to manufacture, while making it possible to obtain, on the one hand, a predetermined appearance for a headlamp or indicator light when they are turned off and, on the other hand, to modify the light beam emitted by the devices when the light source is lit in order to obtain a lighting or indicator function, the beam remaining in accordance with the regulations in force, such a device being furthermore inexpensive so as not to burden the cost of a headlamp or of a light.
Hence the object of the present invention is a component for a motor-vehicle lighting or indicator device.
According to the present invention, it consists of a transparent material within which light-diffusion foci, consisting of local discontinuities, are situated only at predetermined places in order to diffuse the light emitted by a light source associated with the lighting or indicator device.
According to other advantageous and non-limiting characteristics of the invention;
the local discontinuities of the transparent material are created by irreversible modifications of the structure of individual volumes of the transparent material;
the irreversible modifications of the structure of the individual volumes of the transparent material are obtained by focusing electromagnetic radiation;
the electromagnetic radiation is laser radiation.
In a first embodiment, the component constitutes headlamp glazing. In this case,
the light-diffusion foci diffuse the light rays originating from the light source of the headlamp and incident on the component;
the light-diffusion foci diffuse the light rays originating from an auxiliary light source and propagating in the component by successive total reflections.
In another embodiment, the component constitutes an insert disposed in a motor-vehicle headlamp, the diffusion foci diffusing the light rays originating from an auxiliary light source.
In yet another embodiment, the component constitutes the converging lens of a headlamp the reflector of which has an elliptical section.
In yet another embodiment, the component constitutes an indicator strip light, the diffusion foci being distributed according to a predetermined pattern and diffusing the light rays emitted by at least one light source and propagating in the strip light by successive total reflections. In this case, the component can be partially metallized.
In one supplementary embodiment, the component of the invention constitutes a repeater light, repeating a lighting or indicator function, and it is associated with a specific light source, the turning-on and the turning-off of which are controlled simultaneously with the turning-on and turning-off of the light source of the function of which the component constitutes the repeater.
In another supplementary embodiment, the component of the invention itself constitutes a lighting device, being associated with a specific light source.
In all these embodiment,
the diffusion foci have a size lying between 1 and 35 microns;
the transparent material is plastic;
the transparent material is glass.
The invention also proposes headlamps and indicator lights equipped with components as defined above.